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Nevada faces a crisis in access to emergency care. The closure of the Rawson-Neal mental health drop-in clinic is another symptom of this problem. The state-by-state report card on America’s emergency care environment was just released by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Nevada received a D-plus and is ranked 36th in the nation.

The state’s poor grade in access to emergency care is due to a severe shortage of specialists and other resources such as mental health services. Nevada also has high rates of children and adults without insurance or who are underinsured, ranking last for children without insurance (21 percent). Nevada also has only 8.7 emergency departments per 1 million people, compared with an average of 18.9 per million nationally.

Nevada must take immediate steps to address the crisis to ensure that quality care is available as the Affordable Care Act takes full effect.